Thought Process and Timing

Finally something I realized that I knew and seen it applied!

While watching monsters inc (one of my fav movies) I was paying a lot of attention to Mike. He was just an interesting character to follow and tried to figure out his character. I loved it when he jumped from the steps after watching the commercial and kinda skipped.. Anyways..

When Sully and Mike was in the locker room (Mike was putting in his contact lense) I also liked it when Mike was like "She is the one!" I loved how he jumped and shook the other hand. ANYWAYS... When Randal came and said "there is a change in wind" I was looking at Mike's face and realized how he was thinking and it was only through the eyes! At first I was looking what was making that change in his thought. To start off with he was kind of scared of Randal and was kinda uneasy. But when Randal said his line, "change in wind" Mike seemed kinda confused and a tiny bit more confident.

So I was trying to figure out what was triggering this type of change in emotion. I looked at the mouth first (I love the way they make Mike's mouth shapes...sorry I just realized a ton of stuff) and there was no change. Then I took a look at the eyes. And there it was! First off he was kinda looking scared, looking straight I believe. Then the line came in (wind...whoosh!) and then Mike blinked and his eye direction changed. And that made the right mood! Amazing! And another thing they kinda added was a sway in his body so he is facing Randal more to show he wasn't that scared and he was in kinda in disbelief. Try it, imagine he hears something surprising out of nowhere and kinda funny he kinda face towards the person that said that line.

Next thing I realized is that most of the times they don't really follow the "rules of gravity" when they try to put out a feeling. Its kind of hard to explain. But like when Randal became lead scarer, then Sully won after that. Mike was collecting the scream canisters real fast. (because of the slumber party) I if I recall...The can was heavy before and took his back muscles and leaning back to carry that thing.

But when he was switching canisters he did it real fast so he can fill as much as he can. Even though in "real life" he can't do that, the way he did it made it seem more "heroic" for me atleast. (BTW I loved the way he finished that spree! the can rolling around and Mike walking slowly back just amazing!)

So rule of thumb(haha read to many blogs with professional animators and books) really think about what the character is thinking about, and don't forget the blinks! And you can break the "rules of gravity" if you want to set a certain emotion.